Wednesday, September 27, 2017

Social
activist Kuan Chee Heng says he is getting more requests for free rice, and
that Malaysians just aren't earning enough

PUCHONG: Barely five minutes after speaking about the increasing number of people approaching him for free bags of rice, social activist Kuan Chee Heng’s phone begins to ring, for the sixth time in less than 20 minutes.

On the other end of the line is Mohd Amirul Amin, a technician who has just lost his job. The father of two is in desperate need of a bag of rice to feed his family.

Though the timing of the call may seem like a coincidence, Kuan isn’t the least bit surprised. In fact, calls for help at any hour from the Klang Valley’s urban poor is a norm and a matter of real concern, he said.

“I’ve been distributing free rice for 10 years now, and every month, over 100 hardcore poor families receive rice and other groceries worth at least RM150,” said Kuan, who is the president of the Community Oriented Policing Strategies (COPS), a group he established some years ago to do community work.

“But on a daily basis, I get more requests for free rice, up to 10 requests per day,” he says, in between briefing his group of volunteers on their “mission” for the day.

As we make our way to Kuan’s house, which acts as a makeshift store for goods donated by the public, he voices concern that Malaysians aren’t earning enough to keep up with the cost of living.

“To me, if you earn RM3,000 in Kuala Lumpur, you are very poor. It’s very hard to scrape through. In the city, you need a salary of RM5,000 at least if you want a decent living. If you have kids, that isn’t enough.”

Kuan, who personally delivers the rice and other supplies to those in need, says he’s even met people living in People’s Housing Projects (PPR) who haven’t eaten for days.

“Some are by circumstances facing tough times, like an illness, women who’ve been abandoned by their husbands or met with accidents. But there are also situations where the breadwinner just refuses to work, so we have to push them to work.

“We must help them escape poverty. Urban poverty leads to crime and social disobedience. It also puts a strain on families and schools,” the former policeman said.

Thankfully, Kuan said, Malaysians from all walks of life are generous and kind, donating goods and cash to his cause which includes services like the 10-sen ambulance, 10-sen taxi and RM1 hotel.

“People think I’m a hero. I’m not, I’m like a striker who scores the goal, who completes the last move. There’s no way I can do it without the rest of the team, and the rest of the team are Malaysians of different races and religions.”

He added that running the 10-sen ambulance programme, which utilises three ambulances, including drivers and paramedics, and costs RM40,000 a month, wouldn’t be possible without donations from the public.

“The truth is that Malaysians get along just fine. We leverage on each other’s kindness. Only politics and politicians divide us, because if they don’t divide us, they can’t rule over us.”

Kuan said he hoped politicians, particularly those elected to power, would do more to help the people as they had the resources and networks to do so.

Mohd Amirul Amin

When Amirul arrives at Kuan’s house, he gets more than he asked for. Instead of a bag of rice, he goes home with two, along with cooking oil, potatoes and dry food products, almost too much to fit on his motorcycle.

Told you so already ! This blogger will avoid like the leprosy anything that puts his Ah Gor in ANY bad light. Very strange indeed for one who seemingly champion justice, honesty, clean government, human rights, bla bla bla. All know how under the leadership of Dr M Umno became the Ketuanan Bully and how he tried to out-Islam PAS. But to this blogger's new logic, even if we recognize that Dr M and Najib are both cut from the same cloth, he just couldn't accept anyone criticizing his Ah Gor even if this current sitting PM has truly escalates us towards this club of doom....then he has to resort to this "if you don't likee my Ah Gor, then you must be pro the Old Man" mantra. That's the only he can carry on his shameful sell-out.

It started from thence - read Lim Kit Siang's 929 and 617 Declarations which said:

The announcement by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamad in Parliament on Monday that Malaysia is not an moderate Islamic state but an Islamic fundamentalist state has shocked all Malaysians.

Before his “929 Declaration” that Malaysia is an Islamic state at the Gerakan national assembly on September 29 last year, MCA and Gerakan leaders had been attacking the DAP for working “hand-in-glove’ with PAS to establish an Islamic State, proclaiming at the top of their voices that Malaysia is a secular and not an Islamic State.

But immediately after Mahathir’s “929 Declaration” that Malaysia is an Islamic state, the MCA and Gerakan leaders were the first to give their full and unequivocal support that Malaysia had always been an Islamic state from day one of our nationhood 44 years ago as if the founding fathers and early leaders of MCA like Tun Tan Cheng Lock, Tun Tan Siew Sin, Tun S.H. Lee, Too Joon Hing or even the early UMNO leaders like Onn Jaffar, Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak and Tun Hussein Onn would have agreed to multi-racial and multi-religious Malaysia becoming an Islamic State.

For eight month after September 29 last year, MCA and Gerakan leaders were trumpeting that Malaysia is a moderate Islamic state – in fact, Gerakan President, Datuk Dr. Lim Keng Yaik made such a statement only on Sunday.

But after Mahathir’s announcement on Monday that Malaysia is not a moderate Islamic state but a Islamic fundamentalist state, Keng Yaik and his counterpart, the MCA President, Datuk Dr. Ling Liong Sik would be the first to endorse Mahathir’s escalation of his stand from his “929 Declaration” that Malaysia is an Islamic State to his “617 announcement” in Parliament on June 17 that Malaysia is not a moderate Islamic State but fundamentalist Islamic State.

When did the Cabinet make this radical policy shift to declare Malaysia as a fundamentalist Islamic State, going against the 1957 Merdeka Constitution, the “social contract” of the major communities and the 1963 Malaysia Agreement that Malaysia is a democratic, secular and multi-religious nation with Islam as the official religion but not an Islamic State?

It is both sad and most shocking that the Prime Minister and all the Cabinet Ministers are not setting the good example of respecting and upholding the historical, political, legal and constitutional principles of the Malaysian nation by unilaterally, arbitrarily and unconstitutionally declaring Malaysia as an Islamic fundamentalist state.

I will like to urge us to make a better Malaysia. We can do it together. I will not indulge in blaming others and if I want to make a change I shall be the change and I want to leave a better Malaysia to our children. Yes I can survive the battle today but what about your children and my children. Let us be the catalyst of change. We blame no one except ourselves if we too indulge in much talking but never come out to bring and invoke the change. Let us work hard for a better Malaysia not for me but for us and for our children and loved ones.

About Me

Just a bloke interested in the socio-political whatnots around the world, particularly those in Malaysia. Loves a laugh or/and story or two, or more, but loves civility and courtesy much more, especially in politics